Winter Olympics Thrill and Chill

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NEWSROOM – The 2018 Winter Olympic Games have kicked off in PyeongChang, South Korea.

This year’s edition of the games will feature 92 countries. Though most gather in the spirit of athletics, there are nonetheless, some conflicts and controversy.

North and South Korea have decided to team up this year, despite the ongoing nuclear missile crisis. Only a select few athletes will be competing for Russia, due to the fact that many of their athletes were discovered taking performance enhancing drugs. Some Russian athletes will be competing as “OARs,” or Olympic Athletes from Russia and will not march under the Russian flag. Also, the NHL is not allowing players to go to the Olympics, so they do not have to stop their season. Only college students will play for team USA hockey.

Lastly, for viewers, the fourteen hour time difference may make it hard to watch some of the events, but most will be televised on NBC, who is carrying the Olympics as usual.

Due to the Olympics being so far away, there was not a lot of build up to them in the months prior. But, once the games were only a week out, ESPN and other networks began to broadcast stories about hopeful Olympians, especially the story of star American skier, Lindsey Vonn. Vonn missed out on the 2014 Olympics in Sochi due to a horrific crash in the qualifying stages. However, she has been working ridiculously hard in the offseason, and she is competing in PyeongChang this year.

The opening ceremony took place on February 9th. Although it took place at three in the morning EST, NBC broadcast it at 8 p.m. The ceremony featured dancers, huge animal puppets, team Korea walking out as one, a figure skating number, and as always, the lighting of the torch. This year, the torch lighting was a little bit different. Instead of climbing up to light it, the torch was lit at the bottom, and the flame ascended to it’s final goal, the torch itself.

As of this report, 33 medals have been awarded. Norway has the most, but Germany is on top due to the amount of gold medals. The Netherlands are not too far behind, as they were able to sweep the Ladies 3,000m event. Bobsleigh is the only event not to start yet, however it will be starting very soon.

The Olympics are always a fun event to watch and they will not fail to entertain everyone around the world once more.